Aiden Neely was accused of being a bully at his school, Salinas Elementary School, near San Antonio, Texas. His kindergarten teacher came up with a creative way to put an end to the alleged bullying. The teacher is accused of having 24 other students in the class line up and slap Neely one-by-one.
“He was hit on the head, in the face, on the back. And all the kids hit him twice,” said Amy Neely, the boy’s mother. “He had friends in that class, and friends didn’t want to hit him, but the teacher instructed them to hit him.”
The incident occurred in early May, but Neely was not informed about it until weeks later when the principal called.
“The teacher told him not to tell us,” said Neely. “My stomach was in knots. It was horrible.”
The Judson Independent School District fired the teacher accused of hatching the most unusual anti-bullying lesson. She has been charged, along with another teacher who allegedly failed to report the incident, with a misdemeanor, according to the chief of the school district’s police.
District officials have not identified either teacher.
“We are doing everything we can to make sure that these kinds of incidents don’t happen again,” said district spokesman Steve Linscomb.
The misdemeanor charge is official oppression. In Texas, it amounts to a public servant who misuses their position. It’s not enough for Neely, who wants to make sure the teacher can never step foot inside another classroom again.
“I just want to make sure that she isn’t able to teach again,” said Neely. “I just want to make sure that justice is served for Aiden.”

Well, I could see the reasoning behind it but their method is kinda odd.. I mean I'd say to a kid that had problems with a bully to fight back if the bully wouldn't stop because at that point the bully has a problem and the only way to solve it is to take action for yourself. Most kids now-a-days aren't tough as my generation it seems.

I think if you're being bullied you have every right to fight back. This whole 'run and find a teacher' mentality doesn't wash with me. There will not always be a policeman ten feet away to help you out.

Through a form of physical (and honestly psychological as well) abuse. I would expect much better from a person being placed in charge of children.

I mean, Christ, these children are in kindergarten for fucks sake. I wouldn't expect them to know what the hell bullying is, much less why it's wrong. If the first thing you jump to to take away power from a bully, a bully who is around the age of 5, is physical abuse, you should find employment elsewhere as you're clearly too fucking stupid to teach children.

As someone who has spent the last 6 months working with children only slightly older than the ones in this article, there are much better ways to stop bullying in its tracks than having the child be abused by his classmates. Children at that age aren't likely to go against the will of an authority, tell them to stop and outline consequences if they fail to do so and they'll stay in line. You're supposed to be motivating the class to get along and work together, not ostracizing one student.

And regarding the whole "countering a counter". I could see how you could say that a bully holds a form of authority over their victim. That being said, the expectations one has of a bully and the expectations one has of a teacher are drastically different. If you see a bully as someone with authority, you're expecting them to use that authority to cause harm. A teacher, however, is expected to use their authority in a constructive manner. Just because one authority acts in a cruel manner, doesn't mean the other should be able to do so as well.

And I would disagree with calling a bully someone with authority. They have no real authority other than what they have created for themselves and what their victim grants them due to fear and intimidation. That authority can vanish in an instant if someone who is granted actual authority, such as a teacher or a law enforcer, steps in to eliminate the fear and intimidation.

Oh wow I remember when I was in Kindergarten some kid would kick people for no reason, so whenever he did kick one of us our teacher would hold him let us kick him back. I wonder if she still is a teacher.

I'm going to have to agree with yawmen in saying that this is basically the teacher being a bully against a student. The fact that the student himself was (supposedly) a bully has no impact.

Bullying, at least how I define it, is abusing the power one has over another.

In the case of student-student bullying, the power may be physical or psychological - the bully may be bigger than their victims, and the bully may be scary or intimidating to their victims. Both are forms of power.

In the case of teacher-student bullying, as in this case, the power is authorative - the teacher is given the authority to look over the children and see to their education. The teacher, in this case, abused that power by using his authority to have the students hit the student-bully.

I don't really see how someone could argue that the teacher wasn't being a bully, unless they have a different definition of bully. But with the definition as I described, then there's really no room for negotiation here: the teacher used his power to bully another student.

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February 2006
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Also, does anyone find it kind of weird that the teacher is being charged with "official oppression", which is a misdeamenor?

I'm not saying the teacher deserves anything worse or not, but I find it funny that the crime of oppression is simply a misdemeanor. You would think that us Americans, Texans in particular, would have capital punishment for allegedly oppressing someone.

Sounds like a good and moderately funny way to punish the classroom bully.

Too bad pussy society and sacred life.

Yeah let's teach these kids a valuable lesson in how revenge is better the more asymmetric it is, and how you can get crowds to do things you want them to do through misinformation and abuse of power. That'll make them man the fuck up, screw society!

Sounds like a good and moderately funny way to punish the classroom bully.

Too bad pussy society and sacred life.

Did anyone consider the possibiltiy that the kid lied about the other kid hitting him?

Speaking from anecdotal experience, this happened to me a few times when I was in elementary school. Didn't retaliate since I became dumbfounded at the fact that a person could lie to authority without being nervous.

If you're going to beat a bully up, it should be retaliatory and you should do it. If revenge is institutional then it's not even fun, it's just sad.

I mean if you're going to be cruel and abuse your authority, throw the bully and the victim in a pit and give the victim a cestus and a gladiator's helmet. I mean if you're going to go, go the whole way at least.